Kjære kolleger,
Jeg vedlegger en melding som jeg har fått fra Israel; det er ikke bare
her i Norge at vi har problem med forståelse for det samfunnsmessige behov
for første-klasses universiteter.
Hilsen
Lars O. Svaasand
Jerusalem Post: Wednesday October 28th 1998.
Thought you might be interested
I write the weekly Wednesday political commentary column. This is probably
the only one this week that doesn't deal with Bibi or with Wye.
STUDENT LOCK-OUT
David Newman
It is the students turn this year.
Nearly every academic year begins with a strike, either by the
academic staff or the students. Last year the lecturers delayed
the opening of studies for a few days, and this year it is the
turn of the students.
The academic staff fully support the students in their strike. We
are well aware of the difficulties that students have in making
ends meet, not only paying their tuition fees but also for
accommodation, living expenses and expensive books and study
materials. As the cost gets higher so too does the need for
students to find part-time employment which, in turn, forces them
to cut down on the amount of time devoted to their studies. They
try to arrange their study program on non-working days, they have
less time to sit in the library and prepare their assignments
and, all in all, the standards drop as they become more intent on
earning more and studying less.
The truth be known, the academic staff are also on the verge of
striking once again, given their poor salaries which would make
any other system of higher education in the world ashamed. The
world may be cynical about the workload of a university
professor, but this is based largely on ignorance of what they do
during their work week. Despite reports to the contrary, most
university faculty work exceptionally long hours engaged in
teaching, research, administration, writing and serving on public
committees, more often than not taking their work home with them
late in the evening and at weekends.
This time the students have decided to act tough, much in the
same way as the lecturers did back in 1994 when they shut down
the higher education system for nearly two long months. If, and
when, this strike is resolved, students and staff alike will have
to find ways of making up for lost time. If, as in 1994, this
means giving students pass grades for courses they hardly
attended this, once again, will lower the overall standards of
the educational qualifications achieved.
But it is not just about the size of the wage packet or the level
of the student fees. It is about something much deeper than this.
It is about the way in which society values the need for
higher education. Not only in the technical job-producing fields
of study but also, and perhaps even more, in those fields which
simply increase general understanding of the world and the
complex society in which we live. Not only in medicine and
computers, but also in the liberal arts and humanities, without
which we would be a nation of ignorant citizens, unable to draw
on the lessons of the past or from other societies to make our
own world a little bit better.
There is a growing demand for higher education in Israel, a
demand which should be encouraged and promoted. In addition to
the universities, numerous Regional Colleges have began teaching
undergraduate degree courses in recent years, allowing eventually
for the universities to concentrate on higher degrees and
research.
But it is a continual struggle to maintain the level of teaching
and high quality research when the government makes it difficult
for students to study, for teachers to teach and for scholars to
undertake their research. During the past three years, the
government has reduced its level of support for the universities,
demanding that these institutes find a higher percentage of its
funding from private sources, forcing faculty to spend their time
fund raising for their research, and students to fork out higher
tuition fees for their education.
Into this gap, the government have allowed foreign universities
to sell their dubious wares in the form of cheap, often
fictitious, degrees, which cheapens the reputation of Israel's
higher education system even further. They just have to receive
minimal accreditation on the part of the Education Ministry, take
out full-page advertisements in the Israeli press, and, before
you know it, you can have a first, second or even third degree
from a foreign university you have never visited.
When, indeed was the last time an Israeli (not Jewish, but
Israeli) scientists won a Nobel prize? It has never happened. And
the chances of it happening are getting more remote as the level
of support afforded to the universities continually decrease, as
the best brains seek greener pastures in the private sector or
outside Israel altogether, and as we increase the quantity at the
expense of the quality.
It is high time for a serious debate to take place concerning the
place of higher education in Israeli society. This must include
government, faculty and students alike. If our society truly
values education, then it must be prepared to invest the
resources that are necessary to place the universities at the top
of the pyramid. Otherwise, our once highly esteemed institutes of
teaching and research will become nothing more than third rate
colleges, nothing more than a resting post for young adults in
transition from the army to the workplace. We must all, faculty
and students alike, work together to prevent this from happening.
Dr. Lars O. Svaasand
Professor of Physical Electronics
Division of Physical Electronics
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
N-7034 Trondheim, Norway
e-mail NORWAY: svaasand_at_fysel.ntnu.no
phone. + 47 73 59 4421
fax. + 47 73 59 1441
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 20-12-01 MET